Null and Void
by ChaoticCrazy
Summary: Follow Null ARC Trooper N-4, or "Werdla", the unofficial "seventh" Null ARC as he travels through the Clone Wars, meets characters from the Republic Commando series by Karen Traviss, and maybe even find love on the way.


Geonosis, 22 BBY

"Get your mind on the job, Werdla!" Sergeant Kal Skirata yelled over the comlink, angered at the slow pace the Null-ARC was taking to complete his mission.

"Yes, _Kal'buir_ (Papa Kal)." Lieutenant N-4, or Werdla (Mand'oa word for invisible), hissed through his comlink.

"Just get the job done, Werdla."

The Null-ARC was the least known "seventh" Null, due to not being found of his presence until months after the "adoption" of his other half-dozen brothers. He was also barely known to anyone but his brothers, for unbeknownst to the Kaminoans, he had survived through being an embryo and had escaped the scrutiny of Kaminoan eyes, mainly due to his embryo maturing at a faster pace than the rest of his brothers, and still having the advantage of the aging process being the same as the rest. But after two years he heard that his brothers were to be terminated, being too independent and stubborn, and escaped when his brothers were not around.

He had survived on the platforms of Kamino, living in the ever raining outdoors of Kamino for nearly a year after going through training, but knew he had to hide, and so snuck off, surviving by his wits outside, avoiding nearly all contact with anyone save his brothers and a single Kaminoan he could trust, known as Taun We.

But after finding out from one of his brothers, N-10, recently named Jaing, he returned, and was welcomed with open arms by Kal Skirata, and so treated almost as if he was a son to him. He had learned that he had possessed better skills than most clones, and like his brother Prudii was specialized with intelligence, survival training, and most importantly, his stealth, which earned him his name. But one skill he had that stood out from all else was his extreme marksmanship, performing better at long ranges than all his brothers, being an extreme challenge for even Jaing, who was considered a extremely good sniper, but could say he was on equal terms at closer ranges with his other brothers. During his spare time, he learned from Sergeant Kal and from other members of the Cuy'val Dar, which in Mand'oa meant "Those who no longer exist", who were other Mandalorians on Kamino who trained clone commandos and ARC troopers in improving their skills. One of the skills he prided the most was learning multiple languages, since as well as Galactic Basic and learning Mand'oa, the Mandalorian language, from Sergeant Kal, he was also fluent in Kaminoan, thanks mainly to Taun We, Bocce, Huttese, Togruti, Dosh, and partially fluent in Binary, or as the Cuy'val Dar like to say, droid talk. He also looked into little-known races in the Outer Rim, and was interested in the obscure species know as the Ssi-ruu, and already knew their basic language, but had trouble understanding their more complicated expressions.

Werdla had fallen in love with the DC-15x sniper rifle the moment he laid eyes on it, and when he was biologically five years old, attained one for a weapon, and so tinkered with it continuously, forming it into his own deadly weapon, adding on more advanced scopes, extended clips, even tinkering with the rifling of the barrel to attain faster and more accurate plasma shots from it. His longest shot in training was a perfect bulls-eye from a range of three miles, firing a shot through the torrential rain with storm winds brewing, with the shot aimed at a moving target that was moving at 40 kilometers an hour.

But now he was on a mission to take down a deadly Geonosian general before he could release his army on the clones outside, which were busy attacking Separatist battle droids.

He was on a ledge high up inside a Geonosian spire, trying to blend in so any Geonosian flying by would not notice him.

The Null's eye within his helmet was peering through his scope, and nearly a mile down, a Geonosian general was in his sights, unaware that the safety of his AAT tank was nothing if the top hatch was open, with his head sticking out like a sore thumb.

With barely any sound, the lieutenant pulled the trigger, and the Geonosian's head was torn apart by the beam of light that blasted from the sniper rifle.

The battle droids in the spire barely noticed the death and carried on with their tasks, uncaring. But the Geonosian warriors were another matter, and like an angry beehive, flew all across the spire, searching for the assassin.

"Fierfek." The ARC hissed, and quickly hauled ass out of the spire, making sure his armor was still dirtied by the desert sands of the planet.

By sheer luck, the clone covered the entire mile-high spire as well as the one hundred yards to his hidden speeder bike in the time of just under nine minutes, a feat near inhuman.

He gunned the engines just as a pair of Geonosians noticed his escape, and fired their sonic blasters a second too late, the sonic blasts hitting the ground right where his speeder had been a second before.

But with another swear Werdla gunned the engines. He had been spotted, and now the Geonosians in part would know of the ARC's, the deadliest and independent soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic.

But he would have to live with it, as the speeder flew over the desert sands of Geonosis at hundreds of klicks per hour. He knew that he must get back, and quickly. Kal'buir would not like it that the Geonosians knew about the Nulls, but he definitely did not want regular clone troopers to know about them even more.

He covered ground quickly, and with the use of terrain, kept away from the groups of clones.

But he did not see the squad of clone commandos taking on a platoon of Geonosian warriors. By using his HUD and from memory, he knew the squad was one of the one's Sergeant Kal had trained, known as Teroch Squad.

On instinct he pulled out his sniper rifle and slowed the speeder down as he took cover behind a rock mound. Using the rocks as a stable platform, he finished off the clip in his weapon, watching with satisfaction as five Geonosians fell from the air, their heads a charred mess from the round of plasma that went through their heads.

The commandos noticed this too, but took no notice of it until another clip from the sniper rifle took down six more Geonosians, and by then their were merely a half-dozen warriors on their feet, and were lucky enough to take cover behind rocks.

The rest were dispatched in seconds, but by the time the commandos turned around, the ARC was gone.

But one of the commandos knew that someone had been with them, and it had to be a clone if it was that good a shot.

Night was falling and by the time Werdla got to within a klick of the RV point when the speeder bike went down, with a steering vane clipping a piece of rock while going at 150 km/h, causing the vane to tear off.

Werdla jumped away, and a few microseconds later the bike slammed into a sand dune, creating a small explosion.

"_Haar'chak_!" the ARC cursed under his breath in Mand'oa.

But as he got up, sniper rifle drawn, he could hear blaster fire, but at a distance. Looking around, he saw blaster fire from a klick off, and from the blue points of light it was Republic blasters.

Looking through his scope he saw four more Republic commandos and from the looks of it they were combating a few super battle droids, but were unaware of an assassin droid preparing for a sniper shot.

Werdla pulled out his sniper rifle and loaded a clip in before looking down his scope. The desert winds were picking up, and so he corrected his aim. After 5.73 seconds, the Null pulled the trigger.

A plasma bolt streaked across the desert of Geonosis, and ended its journey abruptly as the bolt tore through the droids head, and as the droid reflexively pulled the trigger, the rifles barrel went up three degrees, and the bolt from the rifle went high into the sky, missing the commando the droid was aiming at.

As the commandos finished their skirmish, only one of them noticed the dead droid, and wondered who pulled off the shot as he continued on with his squad, but was soon took his thoughts off the subject as the squad entered the underground catacombs and were attacked by Geonosian soldiers.

Null-4 checked in a few minutes later as the winds churned up enough to cause a small sandstorm.

"Larty LL23, I am at the RV point, over." Werdla spoke over the comm system located in his helmet.

"Lucky Lekku acknowledging. ETA one standard minute and counting, over." The sound of a pilot replied.

Soon the sound of repulsorlift engines could soon be heard, and even when the sandstorm was growing, the dim form of a gunship materialized and in front of him an LAAT/i gunship landed in front of him, with three occupants within the troop bay.

"Took you long enough, _ad'ika _(son)." the Mandalorian in sand-gold Mandalorian armor said from within the gunship, with two clone troopers standing in the compartment, rifles raised.

"A trained soldier always takes his time for perfection, _Kal'buir_." The clone replied.

"Don't get cocky with me, Werd. Bad enough you're almost another Prudii, but at this rate I think you may have a bit of Ordo in you. And look, the _aruetiise_ (foreigners) even gave me a two-clone escort for socializing." Kal badgered the Null, and continued his light-hearted complaining as Werdla entered the gunship and sat down, smiling under his helmet as the vehicle lifted up and flew off into the night.

"So how was the mission? Hopefully you didn't disappoint be as being my instant death on legs?" Kal asked, but already knew the answer to.

"It was 100 percent, Sarge." Werdla replied, a smirk hidden under his helmet. "An absolute 100 percent."


End file.
